Charlie Graham
by saxwarrior
Summary: Alex's Rider as a teenage spy continues, this time in the form of a high schooler in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Partially inspired by my own delusions of grandeur as a kid who watched way too many cop shows and action movies.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.

I had had dreams of spending the night with Alice Elizabeth Beaumont, but of course the reality didn't go as I had always planned. We were in a cheap motel that we'd paid for with cash. We were in Atlanta, Georgia. We'd gotten cash from a teller machine in Athens. I was almost a hundred per cent certain we were probably safe. When driving into Atlanta, I'd made every precaution that we weren't being followed. The hotel was shady, but I had my sig. The last thing I was worried about was a mugging or senseless gang violence.

I hadn't known exactly what to expect with the mission I was assigned by Agent Quince, how it would end, when it would get dangerous, and such. I knew it would. It was my first long-term investigation. Now everything was going to hell. Alice Elizabeth Beaumont's life was in danger and it was my fault. Well, no, it was Agent Quince's fault and Major Chambers' fault. Ah, the hell with it. It was someone's fault. And I'm seventeen years old, I'm not gonna take the blame for anything.

But of course, the inevitable question came.

"Alright, Graham. Tell me what's going on."

Yeah, Graham. That's me. Charlie Graham. I'm seventeen years old, and I'm a spy.

I sat on the bed next to her. There was only one bed. I offered to share, but she insisted on talking about the men who had kidnapped and tried to kill us. Girls. Nuts, right?

"It started in England," I said, "with a kid named Alex Rider. He was the world's first child spy at fourteen and the UK's greatest secret. Someone leaked the information to other intelligence agencies and the rest of the world began to pick up on how useful it would be to use teenagers as spies. America tried it in 2006, the FBI got a kid to investigate drug-dealers in Florida. The kid was killed right after going in."

Alice looked shocked. But, of course, she had every right to be.

"So the experiment was abandoned by the law-enforcement agencies of the Americas. Until I came along."


	2. Freshman Year

2007

Three freshmen of East Cooper High School were brought to Mrs. Bambini's office in the Guidance Department. The first, a tall athletically built boy named Michael Hart. Michael was an eagle scout, a wrestler, and a boxer. He played competitive paintball and participated in parkour. The second, a thin, short girl named Cassidy Shell. She was a black belt and ran in track and field. The third was Charlie Graham.

"Who can tell me what a school nark is?" asked Mrs. Bambini.

Michael spoke up. "It's a student who spies on other students. Narks watch for drug use and bullying and report on them to the police."

Mrs. Bambini nodded, acting as though she were addressing six year old rather than fourteen year olds. "Good. Now I understand that what I'm asking you to do is very dangerous, but you were chosen because you were capable. Do you believe you have the ability to do this?"

…

2011

"You were a spy for the school?" Alice asked.

I hesitated for a second before I answered. "Spy" wasn't the phrase I would've used. At the time, I remember calling myself a glorified tattle-tale. But it was fairly simple stuff. Most kids don't think twice about bragging about their drug use to other students. Turning kids in was as simple as walking down the hallway.

"Basically, yeah. Three of us were... until the end of freshman year."

…

2008

It was a small house, unnoticeable which made it perfect for the meeting. Several of Mt. Pleasant's local competitive drug dealers called a truce. Competition was set aside in the desperation to save their collective businesses. They agreed to hire spies of their own, do some investigating into why so many of them were being exposed now.

The dealers' narks were just as good at their jobs as Michael, Cassidy, and Charlie. It didn't take long to figure out which students were reporting them, and the three students found themselves at gun point one afternoon after school.


	3. Lockdown

2011

"We were taken to this little shack in West Ashley," I said. Alice was listening with an odd expression. She either believed every word I was saying or I was turning her on something wonderful. Now's as good a time as any to explain to my readers that Alice is the perfect girl. First off, she's a mix of classically beautiful and just plain hot. She has long legs, and her skin is a nice olive tone. She has big eyes, and short black hair that suits her personality. She is the valedictorian of our class (I'm third), and is always kind of soft spoken, but quick with a joke should the opportunity present itself. You just can't NOT be in love with Alice Elizabeth Beaumont.

"We were hung by our hands from the rafter, in chains. It was excruciating as hell." I lifted my wrists and showed Alice the scars from where the chains had cut into my arms and hands. "We were tortured by the drug dealers. They wanted to know if there were any more students reporting on druggies to the cops. There were, of course, but we didn't know who they were. They didn't believe us. But they also just wanted to torture us as payback for ruining their business."

I swallowed hard. My voice caught in my throat for a minute. "The cops eventually found us. There was a shoot out and the drug dealers were killed. The three of us were taken to the hospital. The next few days are a blur. We all had post traumatic stress something terrible. Of course, none of this was released to the press. The scandal that would cause; East Cooper High School using students to catch drug dealers. You could imagine."

"Well," said Alice indignantly. "Quite frankly, I think it should go public! I mean, look at what happened! You and those other two could've died! This nark business isn't still going on?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but I'm not in it anymore."

Alice stood up, angrily. "I wouldn't think so, after what you went through."

I cringed slightly. She noticed. Her anger was redirected at me. "You didn't stop, though, did you?"

I shook my head, no. "Cassidy and Michael did. Cassidy was scared of the danger, I expect. The dealers had threatened to rape her. Michael I think just didn't like being used. But I stuck with it for sophomore year, as well."

I looked up at her suddenly. "Do you remember that Code Red lock down we had sophomore year?"

She cast her eyes around, searching for the memory, and then nodded.

…

2009

The only Muslim kid Charlie had ever noticed at East Cooper High had a revolver trained on the other twenty students in the class, including Charlie. "Get in the corner!" he was shouting. He looked just as panicked as the rest of the class. It was weird. Yeah, Charlie knew that the majority of terrorism these days was from radical Islam, but he'd never pegged this kid, Aram Mazirri, as a Jihaddist. Hadn't he read the profile somewhere? How had he missed it?

Aram forced the students into the corner of the room, then went to the computers. Charlie watched with interest as Aram hacked into the teacher's server. The grade book was up.

…

2011

Not for the first time, Alice looked skeptical of my story. "You caught a terrorist… changing student's grades?"

I nodded. "I was confused, too," I said. "But I got a chance to talk to him. See, he was only fourteen at the time, so they couldn't take him to a real lock-up. They kept him in solitary confinement at the juvenile center. First terrorist charge at that center, I'm willing to bet. Anyway, I went over there and I got in the interview with him.

…

2009

The county superintendent had to pull some strings to get Charlie into a room with Aram. Charlie was hiding his emotions. Aram was a good kid before all this. Charlie even considered him a friend. Something about the situation didn't add up and no one else could get him talking.

Charlie sat across from Aram. He'd seen enough cop shows to know there were people on the other side of the glass listening to the conversation. Cracking this egg would be tough.

Aram sat with at the steel table with cuffs binding his wrists and ankles.

"You changed the grades of ninety students from passing to failing or failing to failing worse," Charlie whispered. He hoped he sounded kind. "Why?"

Aram said nothing.

Charlie tried to get more comfortable. He leaned back, balancing the chair on two legs. "Cause it just seems, you know, not very jihadist. You change their grades. You have a gun, but you don't use it. You never intended to use it on any of us, did you?"

Aram still remained silent.

"You just wanted to be in control. You change the grades… why?"

Aram made eye contact once, then quickly looked back at his shoes.

Charlie racked his own brains, trying to figure this one out. "Since you changed the grades, their GPA goes down? Still not exactly virgin-winning material, there." Charlie kept babbling, hoping he'd say something that could get a reaction. "Emails were sent to all the parents. Parents probably weren't happy."

Aram didn't make a sound, but Charlie noticed his pupils dilate and his breath quicken, only slightly.

"The parents weren't happy…" Charlie continued… "and… they'd punish their kids. Their kids would be grounded…"

Aram was sweating now.

…

2011

"Aram wanted the kids to stay home on the weekends?" Alice asked, thoroughly confused.

"Aram wasn't the terrorist," I said. "His father was. His father was planning something awful at a concert in Mt. Pleasant that a bunch of kids were going to. In a desperate attempt to save those kids, Aram tried to get them grounded by their parents so they wouldn't go. He didn't go to the police because he was too afraid of his father, who is currently enjoying a pleasant stay in Guantanamo."


End file.
